The Research Core focuses on interventions to improve patient activation and adherence to treatment for depression and asthma among Latinos and Afro Caribbeans. The proposed interventions are built on concepts of "patient activation" in the context of chronic disease management and "patient empowerment" that encourage patient's to "take charge" of their health and their interactions with health care professionals. The depression study uses an activation empowerment intervention consisting of techniques developed by the Right Question Project (RQP) to teach patients to assume an active role in the medical encounter. Patients will be selected from three health clinics which form part of the Cambridge Health Alliance and that serve a substantial number of Latinos and Afro-Caribbean. It is expected that 490 control and 490 patients in the intervention group will screen positive for depression and be willing to participate. Patients in the intervention group as compared to controls are expected to show significantly greater engagement in treatment, retention in treatment, changes in patient activation and reduction in emergency visits. The asthma study uses a culturally adapted intervention designed to empower or activate patients/families to communicate better to the primary care physician (PCP) by establishing by establishing a communication linkage between the PCP, patients and the asthma counselor (AC). The cultural adaptation involves training of providers to increase their competence about the patients' ethno-cultural practices about asthma. Four clinics, 2 control and 2 that will receive the intervention, will be randomly selected from 17 clinics in the San Juan Metropolitan area .The patient sample will be 250 children and adolescents, (100 control, 150 intervention group age 3-17 years), and their parents with doctor-diagnosed asthma that is at least moderately persistent in severity according to the medical chart. It is expected that patients receiving the intervention as compared to controls will show significant reduction in asthma symptoms, a greater reduction in ER visits and in hospitalizations and greater satisfaction with care and quality of life.